,D5037 
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1830 




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D 5037 
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ADDRESS 



TO 



THE GRADUATES 



OF THE 



SOUTH CAROLINA OOLLEGS, 



AT THE 






FUBIiZe COIlIMZi»rCSBKSK¥y 



1830. 



BY THOMAS COOPER, M. D. 

President ojihe College. 




PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OE THE SE^JIOR CLASS. 

MAY, 1831. 



COLl'i^lEIA: 
rnisTED BY s. J. M'aior.iii! 



X. 



■ 1 

1 E^O 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen — 

You are about to leave this institution, and I have a few 
words of advice to offer before we part. It is true, I have 
nothing to say that I have not said before, but it will not be 
the less worthy of attention. We are apt to forget and dis- 
regard what is so true as to be admitted on all hands, and 
assented to without hesitation. It passeth in at the one ear 
and goeth out at the other. A paradox will startle you and 
arrest attention ; an axiom makes but a weak impression. 
All useful truths, therefore, require to be repeated ; espe- 
cially to young men, to v/hom deliberation and reflection 
have hitherto been a task and not a pleasure. 

You are now about to commence^ not to quit your studies. 
Those of you who are destined for the learned professions, 
will soon feel this In the pursuits connected with those 
professions, the habits of attention we have hitherto forced 
upon you, w^ill be inestimable, where we have been suc- 
cessful. The more you have been compelled to labor here, 
the easier will labor be to you hereafter, and you will thank 
us by and by, for every exertion of our authority, and eve- 
ry compulsory duty which you may have complained of 
while at College. The aim of the Faculty has been rather 
to earn your future than your present approbation. You 
are not even yet qualified to estimate the value of the dis- 
cipline which the laws and practice of this institution has 
forced upon you. But the time will gradually approach 
when our endeavors will be properly valued. We have 
cast our bread upon the waters, it will be found again after 
many days. 

It is the habit of mental exertion, the facility of studying, 
arising from constant practice, the acquired power of com- 
manding and fixing your attention, upon which you must 
rely for your future reputation and success. Without this, 
Genius is an i^nis fatuiis : combined with it. Genius ma}' 
do much indeed, for yourselves and for the world. But 



6 

niero naiurai talent is by no means to be set in comparison 
with patient, persevering industry. Genius unregulated by 
acquired knowledge, and practical experience, is apt to pro- 
duce self conceit, hast}^ determination, premature and im- 
prudent declarations of opinion, and wild and eccentric 
modes of thinking and of acting. It takes a course to be 
gazed at, but not to be followed. There is no settled union 
between genius and wisdom. Industry, on the other hand, 
is sure to find out how little we know, in comparison of what 
is to be known ; and to confirm the wholesome persuasion, 
that great eminence is never acquired without great labor. 

But the first of all your duties and acquirements, is to 
acquire really and^ faithfully the character of a good man. 
Irreproachable moral conduct lays at the root of all desira- 
ble excellence. It is a favorable counterbalance against in- 
feriority in every other acquirement ; and though other 
qualities may be desirable, this is absolutely necessary. — ' 
The praise of being a good man, conferred by good men, 
is the highest recompense we can receivain this world. — 
All of you are destined to be settled in life in the usual 
manner. You will: marry and have families. You will 
then feel the great importance of the doctrine you now 
hear ; and I pray God you may all of you leave to your 
children the proud portion of an irreproachable character; 
and exhibit in your own course of life a manifest example 
of the truth you have so often heard from your instructors 
here, that whether in private or in public life, honor and 
honesty are the wisest policy. 

Many of you, 1 hope and believe, are destined to serve 
your country as legislators. In pursuance of the maxim I 
have just repeated, let me warn you against a mistake that 
legislators are apt to commit, in supposing that what would 
be disgraceful in one man as an individual, is pardonable in 
a hundred. That dishonesty becomes annihilated by divi- 
ded responsibility. This is a very convenient doctrine 
where morality is considered as a thing to be moulded into 
any shape that convenience may require ; and much of the 
political evils we complain of at this time, may be ascribed 
to its practical adoption elsewhere. We have done our best 
in this College to inculcate far different precepts; and to 
teach the important truth, that the maxims of common hon- 
esty are equally binding on nations as on individuals — on an 
assembly of a thousand, as on any one of the nuniber. For 



ihe last time i repeat these precepts to you, and I shall hope 
not without effect. Remember, of all courage the highest 
grade is moral courage ; that which goes on straight for- 
ward to do what is right, regardless of the consequences 
that may result from it. 

This is not a theological institution, and I rejoice that it 
is not. We are freed from the quarrelsome questions of or- 
thodoxy and heterodoxy, and are wisely left to bestow our 
attention on objects of more direct and practical utility. By 
the Constitution of South Carolina, our legislators are pro- 
hibited from intermeddling with religious subjects, or legis- 
lating on religious considerations : and so of course are all 
those who derive their authority under them. " The free 
" exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and wor- 
" ship, (says our Constitution,) shall forever hereafter be 
*' allowed in this State to ail mankind, loitliout discrimina- 
tion or prefer ence^ 

About religion, therefore, I have little to urge. While 
you remained members of this institution, I have always said 
to you, what I have always said to the Students who pre- 
ceded you — that while you are under the control of your pa- 
rent's, it is right and it is wise in you to adopt and profess 
their religious tenets as your own. They may be in error ^; 
but you are quite sure that they are incapable of wilfully 
misleading you. Moreover, while you were here, the Col- 
lege duties were abundantly sufficient, if faithfully attended 
to, to occupy the whole of your time. But now, that you 
have arrived at an age when the laws of nature, and the 
laws of the land, set you free from parental control, and per- 
mit you to think for yourselves, take care that your religion 
is your own ; the honest result of your own dihgent and 
impartial inquiry. Whatever you may decide upon in this 
respect, let your faith be known and judged of by its fruits ; 
by the moral worth of your character, and the habitual up- 
rightness of your conduct. This is all that society has a 
right to look to. Whoever takes the liberty of inquiring 
beyond this, inquires impertinently. To our fellow-men we 
are accountable for our conduct, to no human being are we 
accountable for our opinions. If I tolerate what I deem the 
errors and heresies of my neighbor, he has no right to 
quarrel with me for mine. 

You are about to quit the South Carolina College. Re- 
member that the benefits of education afforded you here. 



nill enable you to direct all your future exertions use- 
fully and successfully. It is to the liberality of this public 
institu'tion, that you will owe in a great degree all ybiir fu- 
ture eminenee. Cherish then the memory of this institu- 
tion ; reverence the wise legislation that gave it birth ; 
endeavor to contribute to its usefulness and promote its in- 
terests ; and may your children enjoy the benefits of your 
exertions in its support. 

Much of what you have been taught here, you will for- 
get. The avocations of the world, the pursuits of active 
life, will render a continued attention to collegiate studies 
impracticable. You must select what will be of practical 
application, and abide chiefly by that. But as I have said 
before, the habit of study and attention, will be of perma- 
*ient benefit, whatever your future avocations may be. 

Of the studies pursued in this place, there is one which I 
w-ould particularly recommend to your continued attention, 
whatever may be your future mode of life : it is the perusal 
of ancient classic authors. From them the moderns have 
acquired all that is tasteful and pleasurable in literature. — 
To them, we owe all the genuine precepts, and most of the 
purest examples of what is sublime or beautiful, chaste and 
elegant, in literary composition, and the arts. Nor can a 
correct and instructed taste, be well formed without them. 

You have hitherto read these works as a task. Begin 
now to read them, till their language and style become easy 
and familiar, and you will then not cease to read them for 
instruction and amusement. It is the fashion in modern 
days, among those who do not possess classical learning, to 
decry it. Those who can read a classic author with ease, 
ai^ never among the enemies of classical acquirement. In 
this opinion I follow the great majority of the greatest men 
in science and in politics, that the world has produced. If 
lerr, it is in the best company. 

But as an opinion seems gaining ground, that classical 
literature is cultivated at our seminaries of education to the 
exclusion of more valuable knowledge, and that the years 
dedicated to it, are years wasted, it may be proper to sug- 
gest a few among the arguments that may be used in defence 
of the common practice. 

The philosophy of the Greek and Latin languages is so 
intimately connected with the philosophy of language in 
general — an accurate knowledge of the grammatical con- 



siruction of those languages, leads so directly to an accurate 
knowledge of the structure of all the European laiiguages — - 
these last are so made up of, and blended with the languages 
of the ancient classics, that the knowledge of Greek and 
Latin is the high road, and the shortest road to an accurate 
knowledge of our own and every language of Europe. 

Add to this, that the best writers of our own and of every 
other European language, have so many allusions, direct and 
indirect, to ancient classic authors, that we cannot peruse the 
classic authors of modern times to full advantage, without a 
reasonable acquaintance with the ancient classics. Nor can 
we trace the history of almost any literary question without 
reference to ancient authors. Nor can we derive any 
knowledge (imperfect as it all is) of the more ancient inha- 
bitants of the earth, and the progress of civilization, except 
from the historians who have written in Greek and Latin. 
Nor is there any author of great repute since the revival of 
letters, on mathematical, scientific, medical, or botanical 
subjects — on the civil law, the law of nature and nations — 
on the priniples of ethics or metaphysics — who is not deeply 
indebted to the classic languages, or who has not delivered 
his own doctrines in the ancient language of Rome. Even 
at the present day, the Latin language is as much in use as 
the language of science and literature in Germany, as the 
German language itself. Lideed, from the many transac- 
tions of literary societies throughout Europe, composed 
either in Latin as in Petersburghj Sweden, Leipsic ; or in 
English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, or Swedish^ 
on which one person can peruse with sufficient understanding, 
we are in a fair way to be driven ultimately to the adoption 
of the Latin as the universal language of science and of 
scientific men. 

Moreover, of the books usually put into the hands of out 
republican youth, the Greek and Latin classics alone are 
adapted to impress republican sentiments, a hatred of tyran- 
ny and oppression, and to exhibit the manifold advantages 
of a free government, and the necessity of a well regulated 
popular control over persons in authority . Even the history 
of modern states, and the books of mere amusement, such as 
the plays and novels of the British press, are so full of 
Kings and Princes, Lords and Ladies, of high born men, 
and high born women, and the great importance of high 
titles and exuberant wealth, and so crowded with the ad- 



ventures of aristocracy, so adapted to the manners and fasl^- 
ions of the idlers and butterflies of society, that our taste 
would be debauched by these pictures, if our earlier educa- 
tion had not received a wholesome bias from the plain re^ 
publican narrations of the Greek and Roman writers. 

These are reasons why I think we cannot yet dispense 
with a classical education for men of reasonable fortune, or 
for those who are devoted to the liberal arts, or to any lite- 
rary avocation. To say that a knowledge of Greek and 
Latin, would advance the pursuits of a bricklayer, a cheese 
monger, or a tavern keeper, would be manifestly absurd ; 
but this knowledge must, for a long time to come, form the 
ground work of what is called a liberal education. 

Another most important branch of the studies you have been 
taught here, I earnestly recommend to your continued atten- 
tion; because the events of every day, everjf legislative trans- 
action, every discussion in the company of persons belonging 
to good society, will require the knowledge I am now re- 
commending. For to all these, the plain, common sense 
principles of Political Economy will apply, and become an 
absolutely necessary part of the information expected not 
merely to be found among you, but familiar to all of you. 
The science of political economy is of recent origin : it be- 
gins now to be better understood, and therefore more highly 
appreciated than formerly. Out of Great Britain, it has 
formed no part of the preliminary education of those v/ho 
now rule the destinies of nations. I have little hopes, 
therefore, of the politicians of the old school, who are now 
in the seat of power ; too wise to improve by knowledge 
so modern, or to adopt paaxims that have forced themselves 
into notice, since the time of their entrance on the busy 
scenes of public life. Such are the rulers who exemplify 
the known remark, quam parva sapientia regitur mundus. 
Before the useful principles of modern improvement can be 
brought into full play, these men, their ignorance, their 
selfishness, and their prejudices, must die away. This ob- 
servation indeed, might have been made with truth, every 
where and at all times : it is still true (with a few late ex- 
ceptions) in every country in Europe, and it is not less 
true in this. Thank God, old men are not destined to live 
forever in this world. The improvements that take place, 
take place always by means of the rising generation ; who 
as yet, untrammelled by deep-rooted prejudices, and not 



11 

worshipping implicitly the wisdom of their ancestors, wiiT 
often regard as worthy of adoption, the bold doctrines of a 
former age. Doctrines, for which some of their immediate 
predecessors were content to suffer the world's obloquy, and 
the taunts, the reproaches, and the persecutions of those 
who thrive on public credulity. The devoted enquirers 
after truth, wherever she is to be found — those who are 
ambitious to contribute to human improvement, and to rank 
themselves among the causes and instruments of permanent 
good to their fellow men — must expect this ; they must be 
content to devote themselves, and to bear patiently the me- 
lancholy lot, which the laws of human nature, the influence 
of human prejudices, and the selfish imperfections of human 
society, have assigned them. Those who are desirous of 
earning the praise of patriotism, must abide the chances that 
accompany it. 

The march of mind, as it has been called — the improving 
progress of public opinion, formed and based on the freedom 
of the pi ess, and the unlimited right of proposing for pub- 
lic exaiaination, and of fully and freely discussing any and 
every opinion and doctrine without exception — has done^ 
and is still doing much indeed towards the progress of truth, 
and the promotion of human happiness. But it is yet tram- 
melled and controlled here and every where, by the want 
of knowledge. The full value of that wise and honest max- 
im, audi alteram partem^ (hear both sides) is not yet duly 
appreciated. Freedom of opinion and freedom of discus- 
sion, are even yet considered as criminal, in the present 
generation : and if truth be not fettered by the law, it is so 
by the imperfect state of public information. But what 
sound and satisfactory judgment can be formed on a con- 
troverted question, if we are denied the right of discussing 
it freely, and examining it under every aspect and on every 
side ? 

At present, the march of mind, can be counted only by 
generations ; let it be your business to accelerate its pro- 
gress — to clear away its obstacles, and enable us to calcu- 
late it by years. Remember, that truth does not depend on 
authority, but on ascertained fact and sound reasoning ; but 
it can make no progress in fetters. That man who would 
conceal from us, arguments adverse to his own opinions, 
or who would prohibit us from examining and discussing 
any side of ^ny question, has no other object in view than 



12 

028 363 078 

to commit a ftaud on gur understandings, ana suDstitute hid 

own prejudices in the place of some truth, whose operation 

he dreads to encounter, and whose prevalence he would 

willingly prevent. 

In fine, rely for your success, not upon genius, hut on ha- 
bitual and persevering industry : call nothing wisdom, but 
what is based upon morality. If you cannot be rich, or 
great, or learned, you can be more ; each of you can be- 
come if he pleases, that noblest of the works of God , an honest 
man. I pray God you may all anxiously aspire to that high- 
est and best of characters. 

Such are the few parting words of advice I have to offer : 
receive them as a testimony of ray continued friendship, 
and ray earnest wishes for your honorable perseverance in 
Well doing. Adieu. ' 



1830 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



028 363 078 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH83 



